IT Tech Tips

The holiday season is in full swing, which means so are the cybercriminals! While you’re making holiday gift lists, they’re plotting and scheming new ways to take advantage of unsuspecting online shoppers. Holiday phishing scams have become an all-too-common threat, targeting customers to steal personal information, financial data and even identities. To help reduce the chances that a cybercriminal will ruin your much-deserved holiday fun, we’ve outlined a few of the most common and dangerous scams that you should be on the lookout for, how they work and tips to help you avoid becoming their next victim. Understanding Holiday Phishing Scams: Phishing is a deceptive technique cybercriminals use to trick individuals into sharing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card details or Social Security numbers. During the holiday season, these scams often take on a festive disguise, tricking victims with holiday-themed e-mails, messages and websites. Whether you’re ordering gifts for clients or friends and family, here are some common tactics used by holiday phishing scammers to be aware of: Recognizing and Avoiding Holiday Phishing Scams: Now that we understand how holiday phishing scams operate, it’s essential to know how to recognize and avoid falling victim to them. 1. Verify The Sender: Always check the sender’s e-mail address or domain. Be cautious of misspelled or suspicious e-mail addresses. Legitimate companies and organizations use official domains for their communication. 2. Don’t Click On Suspicious Links: Hover your mouse over links to see the actual URL they lead to. Be wary of shortened links or URLs that don’t match the sender’s domain. If in doubt, visit the website directly by typing the URL into your browser. 3. Beware Of Urgency And Pressure: Scammers often create a sense of urgency, claiming limited-time offers or imminent problems. Take your time to verify the authenticity of any claims before taking action. 4. Double-Check Websites: Before entering personal or financial information on a website, ensure it’s secure. Look for “https://” in the URL, a padlock icon in the address bar and a valid SSL certificate. 5. Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Enable 2FA wherever possible, especially for online shopping and banking accounts. This provides an extra layer of security, even if your password is compromised. 6. Educate Yourself And Others: Stay informed about current phishing tactics and share this knowledge with friends and family. The more people are aware, the harder it becomes for scammers to succeed. 7. Protect Personal Information: Avoid sharing sensitive information via e-mail or text messages, even if the request seems legitimate. Use secure channels for such communication. While the holiday season is a time for celebration and togetherness, it’s crucial to remain vigilant against holiday phishing scams. Cybercriminals prey on the festive spirit and increase online activity during this time. By recognizing the signs of phishing attempts and following best practices for online security, you can protect yourself and ensure a safe and joyous holiday season for you and your loved ones. Business owners: If your staff will be ordering gifts online for clients, make sure they know how to spot a phishing attack and that your network is properly secured in case something slips through the cracks. You don’t want your organization to be negatively impacted by extending holiday goodwill. If you aren’t sure if you’re protected, please give us a call or schedule a 10-minute discovery session with our team. We can help give you peace of mind this holiday season. Click here to book now, and happy holidays!

There is one extremely common threat to our security that nearly everyone has witnessed but hardly anyone talks about – bad bots. These silent attackers are often thought of as annoying spam accounts posting computer-generated comments online. They are so common that most of us tend to scroll by them without noticing, but in reality, bad bots are much more dangerous, particularly for business owners. What Are Bad Bots? Bad bots are software applications that are programmed to run automated tasks with malicious intent, such as brute force attacks, data mining, ad fraud and more. These stealthy assailants are the tireless, automated “employees” of cybercriminals that help them wreak havoc at scale. And they are everywhere. A study by Imperva revealed that of all Internet traffic in 2022, 47.4% was made up of these automated bots. The activities of these bad bots can range from annoying to outright malicious. The most common ones we see that can affect any business are: Reputation Attacks: Bots can be configured to leave comments on your social media or website with malicious codes and links, post provocative or spammy comments, leave scathing reviews and so on, all of which affect consumer trust. Web Scraping: Bad bots can scrape your website for valuable data, such as pricing information or customer reviews, which they might use for various purposes, including undercutting your prices or selling your data to competitors. They could also use it to duplicate your website and set up phishing scams to trick visitors. This can be particularly dangerous for industries with sensitive data, like health care. Bots can scrape sensitive health information, such as patient records, medical history and insurance information, which is often later sold on the dark web for profit. Brute Force Attacks: These bots attempt to gain unauthorized access to your systems by repeatedly guessing passwords, making your accounts vulnerable to breaches. This is a popular tactic against financial services companies. If cybercriminals get access to accounts that contain sensitive financial information, they can open up new credit card accounts. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: Bad bots can be used to launch DDoS attacks, overwhelming your website or online services with traffic and causing downtime. Ad Fraud: Some bots engage in click fraud, repeatedly clicking on online ads to deplete your advertising budget without delivering real human engagement. This will skew analytics and often lead to poor decision-making for the marketing department. Detecting bad bots can be challenging since they often mimic human behavior. The hardest ones to identify are evasive bots, which get their name from their ability to sidestep security by cycling through random IPs, rapidly changing their identities, mimicking human behavior and defeating CAPTCHA challenges. However, there are a few methods to help you identify bad bot attacks: Watch Traffic Patterns: Monitor website traffic patterns for irregularities, such as high traffic from a single IP address or a single region. Monitor All Comments Sections: Check in regularly on social media sites for spam comments or fake bad reviews and delete them. Use CAPTCHA Challenges: Implement CAPTCHA challenges or bot detection tools to filter out automated traffic automatically. Implement Anomaly Detection: Use anomaly detection algorithms to spot unusual behavior, like rapid data scraping or suspicious login attempts. Track Bot Signatures: Maintain a list of known bot signatures and compare incoming traffic against it. If you notice repeated issues, there are a few actions you can take, such as: Educate Your Team: Train your employees to recognize and report suspicious activities, as humans are often the first line of defense. Create a process that includes who to notify and what steps to take when each issue is noticed. Use Bot Detection Solutions: Invest in bot detection software or services that can help identify and block bad bot traffic. Maintain Regular Updates: Keep your software and security systems updated to patch vulnerabilities that bots may exploit. Implement Rate Limiting: Limit the number of requests an IP address can make in a given time frame to thwart scraping attempts. Hire An IT Professional: Bots are tricky. IT companies deal with them regularly and have advanced solutions that can help eliminate these annoying and dangerous issues for you. The impact of bad bots on business owners can be significant and lead to financial losses, reputational damage and legal complications. If you’re worried about bad bots causing a problem for your organization, schedule a FREE 10-Minute Discovery Call and we’ll help figure out where your company is vulnerable and how you can protect yourself and your business today. Click here to book now.

When you run your own business, it feels like there are never enough hours in the day. Even when you start early and end late, there’s always something else, another e-mail or task, nagging for your attention. If you want to be productive, and ultimately successful, it’s important to prioritize what tasks you’ll allow to fill your schedule. Not everything needs to be or should be done by you. Easier said than done. One of the issues we frequently see business owners struggle with is to delegate the tasks they don’t need to be doing. “It’s faster if I just do it” and “They won’t do it like I do” are two statements we often hear. For some tasks, that’s probably true, and those should stay on your plate, but when it comes to IT and technology, there are always several tasks business owners are doing themselves that they could and should hand off to someone else. Some are obvious, like security. Quality cyber security requires 24/7 monitoring, and it’s unrealistic for busy business owners to be able to handle that effectively. They simply have too much to do! Another mistake is when they hand it off to an employee, family member or friend to do for them. These people are typically not qualified to protect you correctly. However, there are dozens of other to-dos that you might not realize you can hand off to your IT team Here are 10 tasks you can delegate to your IT team so you can focus on running your business. And the list goes on. IT providers can also aid with HIPAA, CMMC and PCI compliance, file sharing for external/remote access users, data loss recovery plans, office relocation, cabling and so much more. Most business owners we consult with are surprised by the number of responsibilities a tech team can take on beyond cyber security. The best thing to do is book a FREE Network Assessment. During this assessment, our team will look at your entire system for areas of opportunity and improvement. We’ll conduct a full audit, provide you with a plan of action to optimize your business for productivity, efficiency and security, and answer any questions you have. Click here to book your Assessment now.

Nothing is more aggravating than attempting to watch a video or use your PC when the Internet is operating slower than molasses flowing uphill in winter. For our clients, we have many solutions to make your Internet connection faster, more reliable and secure. But what about at your home? Spotty, unreliable Wi-Fi is almost certain to happen at the most inconvenient time, like when you’re about to watch a great movie on a Friday night. Here are our top 7 fixes for slow home WiFi signals. Step 1: Make sure your Internet Service Provider (ISP) isn’t having issues. Most ISPs will have outages published on their website using your phone’s mobile network instead of your home Wi-Fi. If there are no outages or known problems, you can move on to the next steps. Side Note: If you haven’t talked to your ISP in over a year, you should call and see if they have new plans that will give you more bandwidth for less money. You might also shop other providers to see if they have recently upgraded their network and can offer better, faster service than your current ISP. Step 2: Update your router, especially if you haven’t done so in the last 2 to 3 months. This will not only reset your router with the latest (and fastest) connection speeds but also ensure you’re up-to-date with security patches and other preventative programs. You might just reboot it as well, powering it off and on again. Sometimes that’s enough to fix the problem. I would also suggest you get a new router if yours is over 3 years old. Aim for one with Wi-Fi 6 and dual or triple band capabilities, which allows your router to connect with multiple devices without sacrificing any speed or bandwidth. Step 3: Change the channel. Download the app Network Analyzer to help find the most appropriate channel for your connection. If you’re using the 2.4 GHz frequency, change to another less “noisy” channel. How you do this depends on the brand and model of your router, so refer to your router’s manufacturer for details. Step 4: Upgrade to a mesh Wi-Fi router. When too many devices connect, Internet speeds decline. One option is to get a mesh router like Google Mesh routers, NETGEAR’s Nighthawk Mesh, or eero Mesh from Amazon.  Unlike a traditional router which broadcasts it’s signal from a single device, a mesh router emits a signal from multiple units strategically placed around your home.  In smaller homes, upgrading to a single, more expensive router like a Nighthawk could help. Step 5: Turn on QoS, or Quality of Service. This is a router feature that lets you prioritize traffic and apps, such as Zoom or gaming programs. Essentially, your router will prioritize certain uses over others. Of course, how this is done varies by router, so you’ll have to check your router’s manual for details. Step 6: Check that you haven’t been compromised. If your Wi-Fi network is open without security or is using WEP, WPA or WPA2, change your settings immediately. Go with WPA3 encryption (which is the most secure) and disable any remote management options on your router. Viruses and hacks can suck up resources and may be the reason for your network grinding to a halt. Step 7: Change your router’s location. The basement might not be the best place to store your router. Try placing it up high and as close to the center of your home as possible, free from obstructions and appliances, mirrors, concrete walls and metal materials that can cause signals to bounce or be blocked. If you put your router on a wall of your house, your signal is only impacting half of your home. If you have a large house, you will probably need to invest in Wi-Fi extenders around the house to boost the signal. If your business Wi-Fi is slow, spotty and problematic, click here to request a free diagnostic of your office Internet connection to see what’s causing the problems you’re experiencing. Obviously, business Wi-Fi is more important than home Wi-Fi and can cost you in untold frustration and low productivity if not fixed. Contact us today!

Every business needs the right tools to get the job done and to keep your team on track. But juggling multiple apps and software can be a nightmare when trying to keep information streamlined and easily accessible. That’s where Microsoft Teams for small businesses comes into play. In this article, we’ll explore the 10 best Microsoft Teams hacks so everyone in your company has everything they need at their fingertips.  The 10 Best Microsoft Teams Hacks For Small Businesses 1) Share And Co-Edit Files The demand for coworking capabilities has risen in recent years. And while modern working conventions have dictated the need for more collaborative software, there are real statistics to back up the benefits of co-editing.  According to a study from Deloitte, “When workers collaborate, 73% do better work, 60% are more innovative, 56% feel more satisfied, and 15% work faster.”  Microsoft Teams understands this and has continued to develop its ability to share and co-edit files. With 10 GB of cloud storage per user, it’s easier than ever to work on documents with others no matter where you are.  You can also quickly share document files by attaching them to a chat within Microsoft Teams so there’s no need for extra emails to share information. 2) Filter Messages  Along with our previous point, running an efficient business often means having messaging software that can keep up. However, it can be overwhelming when you have a sea of messages and no way to mark or find what you’re looking for.  Not anymore. With Microsoft Teams, you’re able to filter messages and find exactly what you need. This replaces the need to use an additional messaging service, such as Slack, and keeps everything within one comprehensive platform.  This eliminates the headache of switching back and forth between platforms and having to have multiple windows open all the time to get work done.  3) Host Meetings Hosting meetings is another huge capability of Microsoft Teams. The software allows you to schedule virtual meetings with hundreds of participants at a time. That means you have everything you and your team need, no matter the size of your business. Recent updates have also expanded the ability for co-hosting breakout rooms as well. More features mean more ways for your team to connect! 4) Live Translated Captions  2023 updates for Microsoft Teams have increased accessibility as well. For example, there’s a new setting you can toggle on and off that will allow for live translated captions to appear during meetings.   The system will save your settings for every meeting, or you can simply toggle it off when you no longer need it. The choice is ultimately yours. You can also get the meeting transcripts when done to quickly review just the one part you were looking for! 5) Chat Features  One of the best features of the Microsoft Teams experience is the chat. With unlimited chats and the ability to filter through them, as we mentioned earlier, your team can have important conversations while also getting work done in the same place. New this year, the platform now allows you to delete chats on your end while leaving them open on the other person’s when you no longer need the information. In addition, you can easily add people to existing conversations, and AI technology can suggest who you might want to talk to next. These features make it easier than ever to collaborate with others and keep everyone on the same page. 6) Picture-In-Picture Functionality  Not every meeting needs your full attention. Teams have picture-in-picture functionality that allows you to have a meeting playing while you are doing other things.  That means you don’t have to put down other work while you’re on less important calls and can multitask.  7) Do Not Disturb In addition to picture-in-picture display options, there are other ways you can value your time with Microsoft Teams settings.  This platform allows you to toggle on “do not disturb” when you need to step away from your desk, are taking a vacation, or going home/logging off at the end of the day.  There are plenty of things that can wait until tomorrow, and you deserve to set healthy boundaries when it comes to getting work done and taking time for yourself and your family.  8) Data Encryption When you’re using an all-in-one comprehensive platform, a lot of information is exchanged. Between attaching important documents to chat threads to day-to-day communications, you need to know that all your information and your client’s information is safe.  Microsoft Teams has you covered. With data encryption, you don’t have to worry about private information leaking on the internet. That means peace of mind for you and everything you work with. 9) Multi-Question Polls The last feature we’ll mention that’s new in 2023 is the ability to have multi-question polls within a meeting. This gives you more flexibility to ask the questions you need and gives you an easy place to collect that data. It’s never been easier to run a meeting and gather information. 10) Save MONEY (Thousands a month!) Most businesses already have Microsoft Teams included in their current software package and can save a lot of money by eliminating redundant services. Paying for dozens (or hundreds) of employee licenses for Slack, Zoom, Monday, Basecamp and more may be a thing of the past using the features already included in Microsoft Teams. Many companies we look at are needlessly spending tens of thousands or more on these other services and that money goes straight to the bottom line.  Microsoft Teams For The Win Whether you’re looking for a solution to messaging, collaborative working, video calls, document sharing, or accessibility features within your organization, Microsoft Teams can help your small business accomplish exactly what you need.  With these 10 features — and many more — you will be better equipped to work together as a team and won’t have to waste time cobbling together multiple apps along the way.  Centrend Inc. specializes in working with small businesses to make them more productive and profitable while keeping their data and business protected. To see what we can do for you, click here https://calendar.app.google/jSA1tteBxFJKnJkX6 or go to: www.centrend.com to schedule a quick discovery call.

There are two types of people…which one are you? The frustrated, constant updater: You find yourself having to constantly click on “Forgot My Password” and verify your account, check your texts, scan a finger (give a pint of blood…maybe not that one) so you can reset your password. And it’s probably a brand-new one because you can’t use one you’ve used before, so this situation will happen again and again and again. The weary optimist: You use the same password for every site, even though you know you shouldn’t because you’re tired of dealing with the above situation. This makes it SUPER-easy for hackers because chances are your password is available for sale on the dark web right now. But…you HOPE this doesn’t happen to you or you think you’re too small to worry about this because they only care about the “big fish.” If you’re Person Type 1, it’s annoying, time-consuming, and frustrating. If you’re Person Type 2, it’s only a matter of time before you’re hacked, and it doesn’t end with you but can affect any business computers you use that lead to access of client, customer, or patient records, and the results can be a total disaster. But there’s a simple solution. A password manager. A password manager is like a digital vault. Your passwords, addresses, payment info, and logins are encrypted in the software. You will have one master password you use to “unlock the vault.” If the password manager gets breached, your data is not at stake because your master password is either stored on a server and encrypted or it’s stored locally on your computer. What’s the difference between using a password manager and one that’s included on your web browser, such as storing that information in Chrome or Safari? The biggest difference is that browser storage cannot be shared with others. For those who work in an office and need to collaborate with teammates, most password managers let you encrypt the data to pass along if someone else needs to access a site. If you have data stored on your browser and then, for instance, decide to make a purchase through the Instagram app, that credit card data will not pass through since it’s outside the browser. There are free and paid versions, and they each have some pros and cons. Here’s a quick breakdown of the four we get asked about most. Bitwarden – Free forever. That free version contains unlimited passwords on unlimited devices, with the ability to share with one other user. For $10/year, you can add two-factor authentication and security reports. And if you’re looking to join a team, you can do so for as little as $3/month per user. If you’re moving from a different password manager, you can import logins without having to copy and paste each individually. LastPass – LastPass does not store your master password on their servers. The free version only includes one device, and for $3/month for premium, you also get 1 GB of storage to back up sensitive documents such as passports, home and car titles, wills, etc. Their team version is $4/month per user. 1Password – Just like LastPass, this software offers a free Chrome extension so it can autofill on sites without you having to do anything. It works on Edge and Brave as well. While there is no free version, for $2.99/month you can try free first for 14 days. One neat feature is to go into travel mode, so you can pull sensitive data from your device before you travel and then restore it once you’re back home, with just one click. Keeper – Winner of PC Mag’s Best Of The Year for 2021. For $2.92/month, you get unlimited password storage on unlimited devices, with sync features. This software also allows for fingerprint and face ID logins, so there is one fewer password to remember. Families can use it for $6.25/month and share streaming and WiFi passwords too. If you would like to set up a password manager for your business, schedule a call with our team by calling 774-241-8600.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSQiydksJuE So many things we use on our computers will automatically add themselves to the startup. While some of these are important, most of the time they are unwelcome party crashers that slow your computer down. In this podcast episode, I’ll show you how to evaluate the programs that startup with Windows 10 and how to safely stop them from intruding on your machine. The most important thing to remember here is that you are not going to break anything permanently by stopping them from starting when your system loads. That said, you may get unexpected warnings or errors if you run the programs they are associated with. These errors are not permanent though and usually, the program you are running will start the required background process they need either automatically or with just a mouse click of “Yes or OK” on your part. Once you’ve followed along with this blog entry, you will be able to have complete command and control over what is allowed to run at startup and you’ll have the confidence to be your own gatekeeper going forward. We’ll start by opening Task Manager. Open it by right-clicking in the taskbar area at the bottom of Windows. Left-click on Task Manager. The task manager will open the Process Tab. Click the Startup button to have a look at the programs that are set to start automatically when Windows fires up. Now review each program and look at the Status column to tell you if it is currently enabled. Next to that is a column called Startup Impact. This is Windows’s assessment of how much of a chore it is to run that program at startup. Pay particular attention to items with a High or even Medium startup impact. You can right-click the item and left-click on Disable to stop that item from starting automatically with Windows. There is also a toggle in the lower right corner but I like to use right-click because that is also how you can quickly access the Search online feature.  The Search online feature will “google” that program so you can quickly research the ones you aren’t sure you should disable. Remember you can’t break anything by disabling these things as most programs will launch the things they need or give an error message that is resolved by reenabling it. A notable exception would be programs like Dropbox of MS One-drive. If you use these cloud services take caution disabling them because if you do, your data will not be syncing automatically with the cloud. So what are you waiting for? Take back control of your startup programs starting right now.  As always, give us a shout or drop us a message with our contact form if we can help.

In today’s video blog, I show you how you can snap windows to the corners of your display essentially creating a multi-monitor effect on a single screen. It’s really handy when you need to look at two different windows at the same time. We’ll start with positioning two windows on the screen. Switch to the application you’d like to have on the right panel. If the application is full screen, click the window toggle to the left of the X you could use to close the window. Then drag the application to the right-hand edge of the screen: When you let it go, the window resizes and snaps to the right half of the screen. The left side transforms to a selection of all the other windows you have open. You can then choose the application window you’d like to have a snap to the left side by clicking on it. When you make your selection, you’ll have both application windows sharing the screen. As I show below, I have Word snapped to the right side and Excel on the left side. If instead of using the side of the screen, you can snap applications to the corners which will let you have up to four items snapped on the same display! See my example below of a four-way split between a file folder, a Word document, my Passport PBS ERP system, and MS Excel. Using the techniques I’ve just shown you, you can take better care of your screen real estate!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Kx9rND6x4 Passwords are a hassle, no doubt about it! In this blog post and video, I show you how to set up a password manager to help control password chaos. There are two tools that we recommend for managing passwords. One is LastPass, which is a cloud-based solution.  The other password manager I’ll show is Keepass for which the data files are stored locally on your computer. LastPass To get started with LastPass, go to www.lastpass.com. Before we download it, let’s review Plans and Pricing. LastPass is free to use for keeping track of an unlimited number of passwords on your desktop OR your mobile device. You need to pay for the premium version if you want to use it on both your mobile device and your computer. The premium version is also very handy for storing sensitive documents because it comes with a gigabyte of encrypted storage space. Scans of your driver’s license, bank account details, passport info, etc. are the types of things uploaded to their document vault. I recommend starting with the free version to get started. Follow the prompts to create an account. KEEP CAREFUL TRACK of this password as it is your master password. They call it the “LAST PASSword you will ever need.”  There are strong complexity requirements so keep an eye on the real-time feedback the systems give you as you create the Master Password. Click “Sign Up It’s Free” and your account is then created. Follow the link to install the LastPass extension to your browser. You are then in your vault and you can click the Plus option to add items to your vault. With the extension installed, it will automatically prompt you to store passwords for you as you use your browser to log into various sites. When you click a web-based item in your vault or from the extension in the web browser (see below), LastPass will launch the site in a new web browser window and log you in! KeePass Some people are not comfortable storing sensitive data such as passwords and credit card information in the cloud. For anyone with that concern, I recommend KeePass. KeePass stores the files locally. Be sure to make it part of your backup plan so you don’t lose the file if your computer crashes! To download, go to keepass.info/download.html and click the download link for KeePass 2.x (KeePass 2.47 at the time of this post) Click at the bottom to run the application once it’s downloaded:  Choose your language preference and accept the defaults on the next screen. It’s a good idea to create a Desktop shortcut and Quick Launch shortcut and leave all other defaults. Once it’s installed, you’ll create a database. Click the New icon just below the File menu option in the top left of the application. The database is the repository where all your passwords can go. You might save it in your documents folder. Again, be very careful as to where you store this as you’ll need to make sure you back it up regularly. Create the master password. Enter a strong password and use the Estimated Quality bar for feedback as to how strong the master password is getting to be. You are looking to be in the green: After you have finished creating the master password, you will be prompted to print an emergency sheet. The emergency sheet is used to recover your database, should you lose your master key. In the application, click the picture of the key to add a new entry. Put in the details for the new entry. Be sure to put in the URL so you can use features in Keypass to open the site and then put in the name and password for you. To visit the site and have it log you in, there are three steps. First, click the entry in the list of keys that have been added.   Next, click the little globe icon. A browser will open to the URL you entered for that Keypass entry. Finally, switch back to the Keypass application, press and hold CTRL and press the V key. This performs Keypass’s autotype function which types the login name and password in for you. I hope you found this post on password management helpful and that you use one of these tools to control your own password chaos.  If you need additional help installing or using these applications, please email or give us a call!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqXYClyi-gc Using a UV Sanitizer is an easy and safe way to protect yourself from germs lingering on your electronics. In this blog post, I show you how to use two different devices designed to keep you safe. First, the phone soap.  This is a very slick device designed to sanitize your phone specifically, though you can put other things in there, too, such as your wallet, credit card, or keys. Just so long as the lid closes, the sanitization cycle will begin to clean whatever is in there. The Phone soap appliance I’m using here has Qi wireless charging, so you can actually charge your phone while it sanitizes. Though the cycle is only 10 minutes long, it’s easy to get caught up doing other things, and comforting to know the phone is charging while it sanitizes. If your phone doesn’t support Qi wireless charging, there is a small cut-out on the end where you can route your charging cable to plug it in while the sanitization cycle commences. You can find this appliance and many other options by this same great company at https://www.phonesoap.com/. If you are looking for something larger, take a look at the Hy-Genie Collapsible UV Sanitizer.  This unit collapses down to fit in your luggage, so it’s ideal for travel. It sanitizes everything you load up in there in just three minutes. As with the Phone soap, the gear does not have to be turned off to be sanitized. I put my Kindle, eyeglasses, phone, and Earbuds in there all at the same time with plenty of room. You can find this device at https://morningsave.com/deals/hy-genie-large-uv-c-sanitizing-collapsible-travel-bag-3 If you enjoyed this review, please drop me an email, submit the contact form, or otherwise let me know and I’ll post some more for you.